A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux — John Shaqi
A Selection from the Comedies of MarivauxMarivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de
General
A Selection from the Comedies of Marivaux
Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de
Comedy plays
It must have been shortly after this that Marivaux returned to Paris to
continue his studies, and possibly to prepare himself for the life of a
literary dilettante. His means were sufficient to enable him to indulge
his taste in this way. Here we find him admitted to the salon of Mme. de
Lambert, held in her famous apartments, situated at the corner of the rue
Richelieu and the rue Colbert, and now replaced by a portion of the
Bibliotheque Nationale. It was a rendezvous of select society on
Wednesdays, and particularly of the literary set on Tuesdays, and among
its habitues may be mentioned such men as Fontenelle, d'Argenson, Sainte-
Aulaire, La Motte, and President Henault. "It was," says Fontenelle, "with
few exceptions, the only house which had preserved itself from the
epidemic disease of gambling, the only one in which one met to converse
reasonably and even with _esprit_ upon occasion."[18] Its influence was
inestimable upon literary questions of the time, and it might be
considered almost as the antechamber of the French Academy. The envious
dubbed it _un bureau d'esprit_, and its form of _preciosite_,
_lambertinage_.
That Mme. de Lambert had a great influence in forming the mind of the
young author no one can read his works and doubt. A "_precieuse_ in the
most flattering and most exact acceptation"[19] of the term, she promoted
a similar turn of mind in Marivaux. His dislike for Moliere may have
received its encouragement from her, as she was never quite willing to
forgive that great genius for his attack upon _les femmes savantes_.
Marivaux, too, had, as Palissot expresses it, "un faible pour les
precieuses,"[20] and for the author of those famous attacks, a contempt as
unfeigned as absurd. The high moral character of his writings and his
ideas on marriage and children may readily have found their origin with
Mme. de Lambert.
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